From: "Mi'kmaq Hieroglyphic Prayers: Readings in North America's First
Indigeneous Script", edited and translated by David L. Schmidt and Murdena
Marshall. Nimbus Publishing, 1995. ISBN 1-55109-069-4. $16.95 Cdn.
Nimbus Publishing can be contacted at (902) 455-4286; buy this beautiful
book and support Mi'kmaq language and culture.

Note - The German text on the bottom of this page refers to an inscription on a
tombstone at Gay-Head on Martha's Vineyard Island in New England (according
to records of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Vol. I).
The text reads as follows:

The Micmac was an important tribe, occupying all of Nova Scotia, Cape
Breton Island, Prince Edward island, the northern part of New Brunswick, and
the adjacent part of the province of Quebec, and ranging over a great part of
Newfoundland. According to Rev. Silas T. Rand, Megum is the singular form of
the name which the Micmacs use for themselves. Re. Eugene Vetromile
translates "Micmacs"as "secrets practicing men", from the Delaware and old
Abnaki word malike, "witchcraft", and says the name was given them on account
of their numerous jugglers; but he derives Mareschite, which is an Abnaki
division, from the same word and makes it identical with Micmac. The French
called them Souriquois, which Vetromile translates "good canoe men". They
were also called Acadians, from their habitat in Acadie, now Nova Scotia.
An important printed notice or appearance of the Micmac characters is in
the work of Rev. Christian Kauder, a Redemptorist missionary. It was printed
in Vienna in 1866 and therefore was about two centuries later than the first
recorded invention of the characters. During those two centuries the French
and therefore the Roman Catholic influences had been much of the time dormant
in the habitat of the Micmacs (the enforced exodus of the French from Acadie
being about 1755). Father Kauder was one of the most active in the renewal of
the missions. He learned the Micmac language, probably gathered together such
"hieroglyphs" on rolls of bark as had been preserved, added to them parts of
the Greek and Roman alphabet and other designs, and arranged the whole in
systematic and grammatic form. After about twenty years of work upon them he
procured their printing in Vienna. A small part of the edition, which was the
first printed, reached the Micmacs. The main part, shipped later, was lost at
sea in the transporting vessel.
The German title of the book reads as follows: "BUCH das gute, enthaltend
den Katechismus, Betrachtung, Gesang. Die kaiserliche wie auch königliche
Buchdruckerei hat es gedruckt in der kaiserlichen Stadt Wien in Österreich
1866". (The good (?) BOOK, containing the Catechism, reflections, hymns. It
was printed by the imperial and royal printing office in the imperial city of
Vienna in Austria 1866.) *)
The publication of father Kauder was a duodecimo in three parts:
Catechism, 144 pages; religious reflections, 109 pages; and hymnal, 208
pages. They are very seldom found bound together, and a perfect copy of
either of the parts or volumes is rare. On a careful examination of the
hieroglyphs, so called, it seems evident that on the original substratum of
Micmac designs or symbols, each of which represented mnemonically a whole
sentence or verse, a large number of arbitrary designs have been added to
express ideas and words which were not American, and devices were
incorporated with them intended to represent the pecularities of the Micmac
grammar as understood by Kauder. The explanation of these additions has never
been made known. Kauder died without having left any record or explanation of
the plan by which he attempted to convert the mnemonic characters invented by
the Indians into what may be considered an exposition of organized words (not
sounds) in grammatical form.
*) Another source quotes that about 5701 characters were used in printing
above book and that the stencils of the Micmac script are still existent
(this was in 1880 !)